Laundromat opening stained by complaints

August 30, 2007|By FROM NEWS SERVICES

About 10 minutes after the ribbon was snipped on the much anticipated new laundromat at Altgeld Gardens, the first complaints were aired.

A rumor that laundry services would be free for the first 100 people proved false. Nearly 40 residents already had stuffed their clothes into shiny new washers when word went out that there were be no free laundry washing. About half left the gleaming building in a huff.

Others complained about the cost of the dryers or the operating hours.

So an event to mark the fruition of a 2-year-old promise from the Chicago Housing Authority was considerably less celebratory than anticipated.

"We had no idea about the free laundry issue," said Danny Thomas, regional vice president of Coinmach, the company running the facility.

Since renovation on the sprawling South Side housing complex began in 2004, the CHA had promised to build laundry facilities to compensate residents who could no longer have washers and dryers in their homes. Until Wednesday, none had been opened, and residents were bused to a coin laundry 2 1/2 miles away at 8 a.m. every Saturday morning.

Wednesday morning's event was to celebrate the first of five promised laundromats at Altgeld.

But even as residents were christening the new laundry machines at Altgeld, the same concerns persist at the CHA's Trumbull homes, where residents have gone two years without a nearby laundry facility.

CHA officials said the delays are a matter of allocating resources and that the priority is to provide affordable housing even if laundry facilities have yet to be completed.

Some Altgeld residents left the new laundromat Wednesday because it wasn't free, but many stayed and complimented the new facility.

"I think it's great, and it's a big relief," said Vanessa Johnson, 48, who was carting six bags of laundry.